In the book, Lauren reveals that founder Fred Phelps’s anti-gay ideology may have spawned from a gay experience.

She writes:

I don’t know what it is, but when people would ask me questions about the church, I never really got mad about anything. Someone might be like, “Oh, are you a lesbian?” And I’d be like, “No.” I wouldn’t be like, “Oh, my God, I’m not!” I wouldn’t freak out and get defensive. I never understood why, when [the media asked him], “Why are you so against the homosexuals? Did you have a homosexual experience? Do you have homosexual tendencies?” And he would get so mad, he would shut down. And he’d be like, “I can’t talk to this person anymore, they’re stupid.” His reaction to that was stronger than any other question you can ask him. So I always wondered that — why does he get so mad? If I’m not gay, I’ll just say I’m not gay. And I’m not going to freak out, like, “Why are you calling me gay?” I always thought that was super strange. … I don’t know what happened there, so [speculation] is all that I can leave it at. But something happened, and something made him change his mind about the military, and in turn have kind of a crusade against sexual immorality and homosexuals.